Klaas Delrue (Yevgueni) crawls increasingly further into the role of chansonnier, with self-written songs in French complemented by existing chansons that inspired him.
He does so under the rather obvious - as it's French-sounding - nom de plume Delrue.

Delrue grew up in the village Rekkem, near the border, where the French language is never far away. The same can be said of the nest in which he was raised. In the 20's of last century, grandfather Delrue worked as schoolmaster in Moeskroen and fell in love with the young lady who provided the lunchtime meal in Café du Centre. Mariette, the French speaking daughter of migrated Flemish parents, also fell for the charms of ‘Master Delrue’.

This cross-border love is what resulted in father Delrue growing up with French radio and French TV (as the Flemish TV could barely be received without snow). Yet another generation later, he subjects his son – the Delrue in question – willy-nilly to an overdose of French chanson. The language of Molière already occupied the family house, the language of Brassens, Ferré, Brel and Gainsbourg…

In the beginning you could consider it a certain form of indoctrination, but soon more and more LPs and CDs mysteriously vanished from father's record collection. Especially romantic rebel Renaud kept Klaas constantly bound to the stereo and made him grasp the guitar himself, even more so than My first songbook, U2 or Gorki. That influence was already sometimes discernible in Yevgueni’s music and lyrics, but the big dream – writing and performing in French – only now receives solid form, in a French-language solo album, under the expert direction of Wouter Van Belle (Axelle Red, Gorky, Noordkaap, Kowlier, Yevgueni…), and with a concert in the AB.

On stage, Delrue presents both his own songs as well as well-considered covers, one long ode to his heroes: from Brassens & Co via Renaud to Noir Désir, Louise Attaque and even more recent gems, often unloved due to being unknown. Delrue accompanies his now familiar, but in French even more whispery, vocal sound with sober, ever hesitant but efficient guitar playing. In passing, Delrue talks passionately about how chanson (and the chansons in question) found their way into his life, maybe in the silent hope of passing the spark on.